Haitian Haste
By First Ringer
With news filtering out of Haiti as slowly as aid is effectively able to get in, the scale of the massive earthquake’s destruction is still hard to determine. For a country already in political and economic ruin, magnitude-7 quake destroyed most of Port-au-Prince, leaving estimates as high as 500,000 dead and perhaps as many as 3 million in need of emergency aid:
Tuesday’s earthquake brought down buildings great and small — from shacks in shantytowns to President Rene Preval‘s gleaming white National Palace, where a dome tilted ominously above the manicured grounds.
Hospitals, schools and the main prison collapsed. The capital’s Roman Catholic archbishop was killed when his office and the main cathedral fell. The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was missing in the ruins of the organization’s multistory headquarters.
Police officers turned their pickup trucks into ambulances to carry the injured. Wisnel Occilus, a 24-year-old student, was wedged between two other survivors in a truck bed headed to a police station. He was in an English class when the earth shook at 4:53 p.m. and the building collapsed.
“The professor is dead. Some of the students are dead, too,” said Occilus, who suspected he had several broken bones. “Everything hurts.”
To put Haiti’s most recent tragedy into perspective, the earthquake may already rank as one of the deadliest in history. Only Shaanxi in China’s 1556 earthquake may have been worse with an unconfirmed 830,000 dead, but with the inaccurate of historical records, the 1976 Tangshan earthquake and it’s official death-toll of 255,000 ranks as the worst of the modern era and likely the most deadly.
There are many fine organizations assisting survivors in Haiti, but I would encourage SITD’s loyal readers to consider donating to the International Red Cross in this hour of need.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
We do Save My Starving Children down in Eagan several times a year. Much of that aid goes to Haiti, and we were pleased to know that the last time we were there we did food for 20 kids for a year. They’re also very worthy of your support.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Argh, Feed My Starving Children, not Save… Too late tonight to think straight.
January 14th, 2010 at 7:58 am
They are a great option, Nerdbert. At Anti-Strib I have been promoting Food for the Poor http://www.foodforthepoor.org/ which has a four star rating from Charity Navigator.
Time is of the essence, give what you can, because these are our neighbors, and the need is great.
“As you do for the least of these, you do also for me.”
January 14th, 2010 at 9:59 am
We LOVE FMSC Nerdbert. My son loved to go work there putting together meals. My only “problem” with the IRC is that more of their contribution dollars go to administrative costs than they do to programs. Charity Navigator is a great tool to see who spends what on what.
I have been asking people to contribute to http://www.loveachild.com/. 91% of the money they get go to programs and oh yeah – my former day care lady retired to Haiti to work at their orphanage. The orphanage has already taken in the sick and the injured and have run their medical supplies way down. They could most assuredly use the help.
Cindy
January 17th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
I’d recommend the [Bill]Clinton-[George W.]Bush Haiti Fund at http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org. Administered by our two former Presidents, 100% of your contribution goes directly to Haiti.